... to spread the cement of brotherly love and affection, that cement
which unites us into one sacred band or society of brothers, among whom no
contention should ever exist, but that noble emulation of who can best
work or best agree ...

Masonic quotes by Brothers

THE LOST KEYS OF FREEMASONRY

or The Secret of Hiram Abiff

THE ENTERED APPRENTICE

CHAPTER III

MANLY P. HALL

There are three grand steps in the unfoldment of the human soul before it
completes the dwelling place of the spirit. These have been caged respectively
youth, manhood, and old age; or, as the Mason would say, the Entered Apprentice,
the Fellow Craft, and the Master Builder. All life passes through these three
grand stages of human consciousness. They can be listed as the man on the
outside looking in, the man going in, and the man inside. The path of human life
is governed as all things are by the laws of analogy, and as at birth we start
our pilgrimmage through youth, manhood, and old age, so the spiritual
consciousness of man in his cosmic path of unfoldment passes from
unconsciousness to perfect consciousness in the Grand Lodge of the universe.
Before the initiation of the Entered Apprentice degree can be properly
understood and appreciated, certain requirements must be considered, not merely
those of the physical world but also those of the spiritual world.

The Mason must realize that his true initiation is a spiritual and not a
physical ritual, and that his initiation into the living temple of the spiritual
hierarchy regulating Freemasonry may not occur until years after he has taken
the physical degree, or spiritually he may be a Grand Master before he comes
into the world. There are probably few instances in the history of Freemasonry
where the spiritual ordination of the aspiring seeker took place at the same
time as the physical initiation, because the t rue initiation depends upon the
cultivation of certain soul qualities - an individual and personal matter which
is left entirely to the volition of the mystic Mason and which he must carry out
in silence and alone.

The court of the tabernacle of the ancient Jews was divided into three parts:
the outer court, the holy place, and the most Holy of Holies. These three
divisions represent the three grand divisions of human consciousness. The degree
of Entered Apprentice is acquired when the student signifies his intention to
take the rough ashlar which he cuts from the quarry and prepares for the truing
of the Fellow Craft.

In other words, the first degree is really one of preparation; it is a
material step dealing with material things, for all spiritual life must be
raised upon a material foundation.

Seven is the number of the Entered Apprentice as it relates to the seven
liberal arts and sciences, and these are the powers with which the Entered
Apprentice must labor before he is worthy to go onward into the more elevated
and advanced degrees. They are much mistaken who believe that they can reach the
spiritual planes of Nature without first passing through and molding matter into
the expression of spiritual power; for the first stage in the growth of a Master
Mason is mastery of the concrete condition s of life and the developments of
sense centers which will later become channels for the expression of spiritual
truths.

All growth is a gradual procedure carried on in an orderly, masterly way, as
exemplified by the opening and closing of a lodge. The universe is divided into
planes and these planes are divided from each other by the rates of vibration
which pass through them. As the spiritual consciousness progresses through the
chain, the lower lose connection with it when it has raised itself above their
level, until finally only the Grand Masters are capable of remaining in session,
and unknown even to the Master Mason it finally passes back again to the
spiritual hierarchy from which it came.

Action is the keynote of the Entered Apprentice lodge. All growth is the
result of exercise and the intensifying of vibratory rates. It is through
exercise that the muscles of the human body are strengthened; it is through the
seven liberal arts and sciences that the human mind receives certain impulses
which, in turn, stimulate internal centers of consciousness. These centers of
consciousness, through still greater development, will later give fuller
expression to these inner powers; but the Entered Appr entice has for his first
duty the awakening of these powers, and, like the youth of whom he is a symbol,
his ideals and labors must be tied closely to concrete things. For him both
points of the compasses are under the square; for him the reasons which manifest
through the heart and mind - the two polarities of expression are darkened and
concealed beneath the square which measures the block of bodies. He knows not
the reason why; his work is t o follow the directions of those whose knowledge
is greater th an his own; but as the result of the application of energies,
through action and reaction he slowly builds and evolves the powers of
discrimination and the strength of character which mark the Fellow Craft degree.

It is obvious that the rough ashlar symbolizes the body. It also represents
cosmic root substance which is taken out of the quarry of the universe by the
first expressions of intelligence and molded by them into ever finer and more
perfect lines until finally it becomes the perfect stone for the Builder's
temple.

How can emotion manifest save through form? How can mind manifest until the
intricately evolved brain cells of matter have raised their organic quality to
form the ground-work upon which other things may be based? All students of human
mature realize that every expression of man depends upon organic quality; that
in every living thing this differs; and that the fineness of this matter is the
certain indication of growth - mental, physical or spiritual.

True to the doctrines of his Craft, the Entered Apprentice must beautify his
temple. He must build within himself by his actions, by the power of his hand
and the tools of his Craft, certain qualities which make possible his initiation
into the higher degrees of the spiritual lodge.

We know that the cube block is symbolic of the tomb. It is also well known
that the Entered Apprentice is incapable of rolling away the stone or of
transmuting it into a greater or higher thing; but it is his privilege to purify
and glorify that stone and begin the great work of preparing it for the temple
of his King.

Few realize that since the universe is made up of individuals in various
stages of development, responsibility is consequently individual, and everything
which man wishes to gain he must himself build and maintain. If he is to use his
finer bodies for the purpose for which they were intended, he must treat them
well, that they may be good and faithful servants in the great work he is
preparing for.

The quarries represent the limitless powers of natural resources. They are
symbolic of the practically endless field of human opportunity; they symbolize
the cosmic substances from which man must gather the stones for his temple. At
this stage in his growth, the Entered Apprentice is privileged to gather the
stones which he wishes to true during his progress through the lodge, for at
this point he symbolizes the youth who is choosing his life work. He represents
the human ego who in the dawn of time gathered many blocks and cubes and broken
stones from the Great Quarry. These rough and broken stones that as yet will not
fit into anything are the partially evolved powers and senses with which he
labors. In the first state he must gather these materials, and those who have
not gathered them can never true them. During the involuntary period of human
consciousness, the Entered Apprentice in the Great Lodge was man, who labored
with these rough blocks, seeking the tools and the power with which to true them
. As he evolves down through the ages, he gains the tools and cosmically passes
on to the degree of Fellow Craft where he trues his ashlar in harmony with the
plans upon the Master's tracing board. This rough, uncut ashlar has three
dimensions, representative of the three ruffians who at this stage are
destroyers of the fourth dimensional life concealed within the ugly, ill-shaped
stone.

The lost key of the Entered Apprentice is service. Why, he may not ask; when,
he does not know. His work is to do, to act, to express himself in some way -
constructively if possible, but destructively rather than not at all. Without
action, he loses his great work; without tools, which symbolize the body, he
cannot act in an organized manner. Consequently, it is necessary to master the
arts and sciences which place in his hands intelligent tools for the expression
of energy. Beauty is the keynote to h is ideal. With his concrete ideals he must
beautify all with which he comes in contact, so that the works of his hand may
be acceptable in the eyes of the Great Architect of the Universe.

His daily life, in home, business, and society, together with the realization
of the fundamental unity of each with all, form the base upon which the aspiring
candidate may raise a greater superstructure. In truth he must live the life,
the result of which is the purification of his body, so that the more attenuated
forces of the higher degrees may express themselves through the finer
sensitivity of the receiving pole within himself. When he reaches this stage in
his growth, he is spiritually worthy to consider advancement into a higher
degree. This advancement is not the result of election or ballot, but is an
automatic process in which, having sensitized his consciousness by his life, he
thereby attunes himself to the next succeeding plane of expression. All
initiation is the result of adjustments of the evolving life to the physical,
emotional, and mental planes of consciousness through which it passes.

We may now consider the spiritual requirements of one who feels that he would
mystically correlate himself with that great spiritual fraternity which,
concealed behind the exoteric rite, forms the living power of the Entered
Apprentice lodge:

1. It is essential that the Entered Apprentice should have studied
sufficiently the subject of anatomy to have at least a general idea of the
physical body, for the entire degree is based upon the mystery of form. The
human body is the highest manifestation of form which he is capable of
analyzing. Consequently, he must devote himself to the study of his own being
and its mysteries and complexities.

2. The Entered Apprentice must realize that his body is the living temple of
the living God and treat it accordingly; for when he abuses or mistreats it he
breaks the sacred obligations which he must assume before he can ever hope to
understand the true mysteries of the Craft. The breaking of his pact with the
higher Life evolving within himself unfailingly invokes the retributive agencies
of Nature.

3. He must study the problem of the maintenance of bodies through food,
clothing, breathing, and other necessities, as all of these are important steps
in the Entered Apprentice lodge. Those who eat immoderately, dress improperly,
and use only about one-third of their lung capacity can never have the physical
efficiency necessary for the fullest expression of the higher Life.

4. He must grow physically and in the expression of concrete things. Human
relationships must be idealized at this time, and he must seek to unfold all
unselfish qualities which are necessary for the harmonious working of the Mason
and his fellow men on the physical plane of Nature.

5. He must seek to round off all inequalities. He can best do this by
balancing his mental and physical organisms through the application and study of
the seven liberal arts and sciences.

Until he is relatively master of these principles on the highest plane within
his own being, he cannot hope spiritually to attract to himself, through the
qualities of his own character, the life-giving ray of the Fellow Craft. When he
reaches this point, however, he is spiritually ready to hope for membership in a
more advanced degree.

The Mason must realize that his innermost motives are the index of his real
self, and those who allow social position, financial or business considerations
or selfish and materialistic ideals, to lead them into the Masonic Brotherhood
have thereby automatically separated themselves from the Craft. They can never
do any harm to Freemasonry by joining because they cannot get in. Ensconced
within the lodge, they may feel that they have deceived the Grand Master of the
Universe, but when the spiritual lodge me ets to carry on the true work of the
Craft, they are disqualified and absent. Watch fobs, lapel badges, and other
insignia do not make Masons; neither does the ritual ordain them. Masons are
evolved through the self-conscious effort to live up to the highest ideals
within themselves; their lives are the sole insignia of their rank, greater by
far than any visible, tangible credential.

Bearing this in mind, it is possible for the unselfish, aspiring soul to
become spiritually and liberally vouched for by the centers of consciousness as
an Entered Apprentice. It means he has taken the first grand step on the path of
personal liberation. He is now symbolized as the child with the smiling face,
for with the simplicity of a child he places himself under the protection of his
great spiritual Father, willing and glad to obey each of His commands. Having
reached this point and having done th e best it was possible for him to do, he
is in position to hope that the powers that be, moving in their mysterious
manner, may find him worthy to undertake the second great step in spiritual
liberation.

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